Please Help! I'm not sure what I did wrong. I bought a quart of yamaha lube 20w-50 so that I can change the oil in my son's 2008 Yamaha Grizzly 80. Not much to it. There's no filter involved. All that's needed is to drain the old oil and add 8 Liters of the new oil. Why did I use 20w - 50 you ask? Good question. Since this was my first time doing it I asked the dealer to give me what I needed. The parts guy went over to the oil and gave me the 20w - 50. A few days later when I was ready to change it I saw in the book where the oil specs were between 5w - 30 to 10w - 40 so I wondered if I should return it. My son was anxious to ride and I ask my dad if it would be okay and he said yes so I used it.

I set the atv rear end on a set of car ramps so that I could get to the drain bolt at the bottom. Also I figured the angle would let the oil drain completely out. I let it sit there a while to be sure all of the oil was out but no more than 10 minutes. I then replaced the bolt, added the new oil and check the level. It was full. Tried starting it and it wouldn't start. Put the choke on, off and in the middle but still couldn't get it to start. It's not cold here in mississippi so the engine wasn't cold. Beside I started it before I changed oil and it fired on the first try. Drove it to the spot by my shed to change the oil but now it won't fire. I'm thinking maybe I flooded it when it was on the ramps. Waited a while but still it won't start. Took the spark plug out and cleaned it too but nothing.

What could be wrong? I'm trying to keep from taking it to the dealer but their service department is so high. But I might not have a choice.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

put a new plug in it ? id think it just flooded . was the plug black?

 

20w50 won't cause it to not start, but nonethless I'd give that shop a call and find out why the heck they are giving you oil not even recommended for your quad. (Car dealership did that to me a while back and I got some of the shittiest gas mileage I have ever gotten, took it back and got them to refund the full oil change for using the wrong oil) It shouldn't cause it to not run, but it will affect performance adversely, as 20w50 is pretty damn thick compared to a 10w30 or something.

Honestly, I'd talk to the manager at the shop. If it ran before the change and you didn't tinker with anything else at all you ought to be able to at least get the right oil for no charge and change it back to see what happens.

Lesson from this, never ask them for the oil, tell them what oil you want and always be specific. You can't depend on many shops to know what they are doing anymore.

 

I don't know what your problem is but does it really take 8 liters !

 

Good point there. If you really put 8 L in you are overfilled, by a ton, which will cause it to not start. 2-3 quarts is all it should take, which is close to 2-3 liters.

 

Yeah I guess I wasn't thinking when I said Liters. The manual says .8 L. What does the L mean? Anyway on the quart of Yamalube it has 0 - 1000 L on the side so you'll know how much you're using. I used 80% of that quart.

Yeah I thought 20w - 50 was thick too but like I said we're in Mississippi so it doesn't get real cold here at least not until late Jan and Feb. I didn't notice the spark splug. Dad took it off and cleaned it. He said it look good. However I will have it replaced and I'll buy another quart of Yamaha Lube and change it just to be on the safe side. My oldest son had me pull it with his big bear and he was able to jump start it that way but it wouldn't stay running. I kept wanting to try but I was worried he may damage something.

 

L means liters. .8 L is 800 milliliters---which is the amount you put in it sounds like so thats not the problem.

You won't damage anything with that oil, running thicker viscosities in quad engines won't really hurt much besides efficiency, but anyhow, I'd go ahead and get it changed back to what the manual calls for and maybe change the spark plug if cleaning it off helped.

 

My plan is to pick up another spark plug tomorrow and change it out. I'll wait on changing th oil for now. I took out the spark plug tonight so I'll know exactly what to get tomorrow. I hope that's the only problem.

 

Went by the dealer yesterday and got a new spark plug. Haven't had a chance to mess with it but when I described exactly what I did the service man was confident that it was the spark plug. He said it had to do with the rear being up on the ramps that somehow the spark plug was shot due to the way it sits. It sounds better the way he explained but he was confident the spark plug will fix the problem. He first said that the gas line that runs from the carb has a pin that gets stuck sometime and to softly tap it and it'll free the pin.

 

Put the new spark plug in today and guess what. Yeah that's right, It fired and started on the first try and has been running fine ever since. Only cost me $3.